Civil Rights Pioneer to Speak at Brookhaven Lab, March 21

UPTON,
NY - American civil rights pioneer Amelia Boynton Robinson will give a
talk on her struggle for racial equality and social justice at noon at the
U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory on Thursday,
March 21, in the Laboratory’s Berkner Hall. The lecture is free and open
to the public. All visitors to the Laboratory age 15 and over must bring a
photo ID.

Robinson will be giving her talk to celebrate her 90th birthday as part
of a tour called the “Dialogue of Civilizations.” This “Dialogue,” which
aims to bring about peaceful coexistence among nations, is sponsored by
the Schiller Institute, a foundation dedicated to the idea of the
inalienable rights and dignity of humanity as expressed in the works of
the nineteenth century poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller. Robinson is
the vice chair of the board of the Schiller Institute. She also is the
1990 recipient of the Martin Luther King Freedom Medal and a member of the
board of the Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Social Change.

Robinson has labored for the right of Afro-Americans to vote in Selma,
Alabama, since the 1930s. Martin Luther King Jr.’s attention was drawn to
Selma in the 1960s because of Robinson’s personal plea. In March 1965,
Robinson was in the forefront of the march from Selma to Montgomery, known
as “Bloody Sunday,” where she was brutally beaten and gassed. In that
year, the battle for the right of African-Americans to vote was won, when
the U.S. Congress passed the Voting Rights Act.

For more information, call 631 344-2345. Brookhaven National Laboratory
is located on William Floyd Parkway, one-and-a-half miles north of Exit 68
of the Long Island Expressway.

The
U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts
research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as
well as in energy technologies. Brookhaven also builds and operates
major facilities available to university, industrial, and government
scientists. The Laboratory is managed by Brookhaven Science
Associates, a limited liability company founded by Stony Brook
University and Battelle, a nonprofit applied science and technology
organization.